Poll: Most find Korea threat ‘critical’

A majority of Americans see the conflict between North and South Korea as a “critical threat” to U.S. interests, according to a new poll, with less than one in 10 saying it’s unimportant.

Fifty-three percent of Americans said the conflict between the two Asian nations was a threat “to the vital interests of the United States in the next 10 years,” according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday. Of those surveyed, 36 percent see it as an “important but not critical” issue, and only 8 percent said it was not important to U.S. interests.

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In the same poll, North Korea came in at the bottom of the list of countries Americans view favorably, falling below Iran. Just 11 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the nation, compared with 12 percent for Iran, which gained from 9 percent last year.

The poll was conducted before the U.N. released a report this week criticizing North Korea for crimes against humanity and comparing the the country to the Nazi era.

Gallup surveyed 1,023 adults from Feb. 6 to 9 for the poll, which has an error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.